I have a fond memory of waving the peace sign at hippies and war protesters on the U-Minnesota campus during an elementary school field trip in the late 60s. That was how we did national politics back then. I'm sure this was just fun...

A collection of Obama's short, pithy statements should be printed up in a small book that the children can carry with them. The children don't have to memorize the sayings, but the teacher must explain to them how the various sayings apply to doing their homework or making their beds in the morning. We all need a little voice in our heads telling us right from wrong. Let Obama be that little voice.

I have no objection to children praying to Jesus in public schools so long as the teacher stresses how the promises of Jesus were made flesh in the person of Obama. There is no Jesus/Obama dichotomy; rather both are part of a continuum. I really don't think children can understand the wonder of Obama unless they are first instructed in the teachings of Jesus and how Obama fufills them.

In fact, I read that the song was taught to them by Charisse Carney-Nunes, the author of the book "I Am Barack Obama, (2009)" She is also is senior vice president of The Jamestown Project. The school district has confirmed it was part of an official school project.

“The most important thing I think, and the reason the book is called I Am Barack Obama, is because I like when children say I am Barack Obama,” Carney-Nunes said. “They understand that there is a little bit of Barack Obama in all of us.”

Sure. If the school is indoctrinating kids in anything other than keeping their rooms neat and clean I'm against it. But, if parents voluntarily took their kids to Meet the Author night, I'm in favor of it -- they could always take them home if the content didn't meet expectations.

But it seemed to me there was a whole lot of conclusion-jumping going on last night.

The main reason some hate this and some don't mind is primarily their opinion of Obama. The sides would be reversed if Bush was enjoying this cultism. Considering the kind of man Bush is, I doubt he would approve of such silliness.

The thing is that such treatment of a President is not in line with the principles of liberals or conservatives. That's why we hate it when it's not our horse. It's partisan, inappropriate and smells of dictatorship.

It should never be part of school instruction and should be avoided, just like religious teaching, and for similar reasons. Do we really need to do this crap to our kids. They are not pets or props for our partisan amusement.

If we ARE gonna worship the President, he should at least accomplish something first.

Penny. 1) It's a school. The objective of a school is not to "raise good humans." It is to EDUCATE them. This concept has to do with thinking, which unaccountably got left out of your checklist.

2). If you are a parent, and all you hope for in raising your kids is that they grow up to be "good humans" -- a result which you have somehow managed to conclude will occur automatically from opening their mouths and having fun singing cultish political doggerel with their friends -- great, raise YOUR kids that way. Many parents have slightly more complex goals for their kids than you seem to. Further, many of us are skeptical that teaching kids to unthinkingly and uncritically adore a political leader in the same way they might be taught to adore a religious figure if they happen to come from religious families will result in anything that vaguely resembles "goodness" in adult life. Unless you think "goodness" is passive idiotic receptivity to whatever the Democrats want good citizens to believe THIS week.

In the days of the Mau Mau "uprising" in Kenya the supporters of Jumyo Kenyatta took the Christian Hymns that had been taught by the missionaries (only source of education and written materials )and simply removed the name of Jesus and inserted the name of Jumyo. A Simple and seamless transition like the one we now watch the half Kenyan Obama using to good effect in area after area while our insanely adoring News Media covers up what he is doing or praises him for "re-setting" one thing after another that we lived by for the last 200 years. Our Boy King has come to us in the substitute role of World Leader in place of the role of a mere President who works within a Constitutional Government. To watch this this happen and say it out loud does not make you a wingnut. It is being done. It has made Chavez and Castro ecstatic, and they are not wingnuts. Also the Christian scriptures warn us about yhe coming of a "substitute" Christ rising to rule over of a world government that has all of the powerful weapons of war (Nuclear)under its sole control and a financial system run by a central computer. This is some amazing stuff going on as we watch.

Titled Long Live with Mao's theory, this red book was distributed internally, and contain Lin Biao's words which says "Great Helmsman, Great Leader, Great Teacher and Great Commander. Long Long live Chairman Mao". The red book once belonged to someone named Li Yuan Shan, who wrote inside of the book "Forever Loyal to Chairman Mao". In the back of this red book, a rare footage was found featuring Lin Biao's words that said the following: "Read Mao's book, Listen to Mao's words, Do what Mao tell you to do, and be a good soldier to Chairman Mao".

I don't agree that parental approval would make it ok. Then we have this partisan battle in the school with our kids used as game pieces. Constant battles over which kid's parents didn't approve of what. Just leave the little brats alone and teach them math, or is that all being handled just fine? Does everything need to be political even childhood?

But it was at the direction of at least one member of the school staff - their teacher.

/////

I don't agree that parental approval would make it ok.

Malkin's post has questions without answers. I'm still going on the hypothesis that the song was part of Meet-the-Author night, March 23. An event held so late in the evening -- 7-8 PM -- that the parents would have had to take their kids.

Thinking about it, 8 PM would have been close to my bedtime back then.

This was an official school activity. It was not just a collection of willing children.

From the Letter written by the school district in response to this.

"Today we became aware of a video that was placed on the internet which has been reported in the media. The video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama. The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country. Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country"

Oddly, according to the article the guy who posted the video on YouTube says that the woman who first put the video online "insisted that the program had been filmed in June as part of a Father's Day tribute to President Obama."

Which reminds me, my father's day program rehearsal is tonight...

Mm, mmm, mm!Dad dad dad

He said that all must lend a handTo make the playroom clean againMmm, mmm, mm!Dad dad dad

He said we must be fair for onceLazy kids don't get allowanceMmm, mmm, mm!Dad dad dad

He said that we must wear our socksLook both ways at crossing walksMmm, mmm, mm!Dad dad dad

He said red, yellow, black or whiteDon't crab about which cup you getMmm, mmm, mm!Dad dad dad

I'm sorry but I don't know how anyone who isn't a complete Obama suckass can't see how this is just beyond creepy. I don't give a shit if its Obama or not, having a bunch of gradeschool kids singing praises of a politician to the tune of Jesus Loves Me is downright Dear Leader. Period, end of discussion.

having a bunch of gradeschool kids singing praises of a politician to the tune of Jesus Loves Me is downright Dear Leader

Now I wish Hillary had won -- considering that grammar school teachers are >90% women I bet there would be some spectacular things being sung in classrooms.

But I believe in inoculating kids with bullshit anyways. Tell them about Santa and the Easter Bunny when they're young, and they'll grow up suspicious forever after. But without that inoculation, they'll become Moonies or Dittoheads or some other cult member.

I don't think this is anything new. My son was taught hymn-like songs about Martin Luther King Jr. every year during Black History Month. Actual words from a song he sang in second grade: "He died to save us."

"Consider that in fifteen years, they won't be able to watch that video without cringing."

You are right. People are over reacting to this. School sponsored propeganda never works. How much do school propegandize about not eating sweets and exercising? Considering how fat our kids are, how is that working out? The communists spent 40 years trying to brainwash Eastern Europe with the force of the Stasi and the Russian Army to back them up. Yet, Eastern Europeans who grew up under such a system seem to be anything but mindless communists.

Just trying to stay "on topic". And the comments at youtube were a 1000 times creepier than the actual video.

I'm sure they were garage. Assholes to the left and assholes to the right. You know garage, for the last 8 years I read a lot of pretty horrible comments about Bush, about conservatives, about Palin or about her retarded kid she should have aborted so you'll have to forgive me that I'm just not worked up in a frothy lather over some racist comments on a fricking YouTube site. I'm sure you're outraged enough for the both of us.

Yet, Eastern Europeans who grew up under such a system seem to be anything but mindless communists

Indeed. Funny how most of them seem to be here getting czar positions in the current administration ;-)

But I think you're missing the point. It's not an issue of whether its effective, its the concept that public schools are promoting a kind of hero worship to a politician. I'm sorry that's creepy and if I were a parent I'd be pissed off too.

Unfortunately, there's a valid point in that. History is very clear about what happens to kids turned into fanatics worshiping the Chairman, Duce, or Grand Mullah. Remember all the good little mine detectors in Saddam's war with Iran?

Hey garage, speaking of creepy comments where any of those comments that have you so upset as bad as when Sara Bernhardt's remarks how she'd like to get some of her black homies to gangrape Palin when she came into town?

So FLS -- did you note the comment by the father of the 8 year old who was in the Obama Adulation Choir without his knowledge or permission?

I am waiting for FLS to simply say "Holy crap, what were they thinking. Getting children in a public school setting to promote an adult's political beliefs and agenda is inappropriate in the United States of America."

Meanwhile, Penny, you completely ignore the CONTENT of the chant and song. Is that deliberate or inadvertent?

It reeks of "Dear Leader Syndrome".Teachers are busily propagandizing in other ways, employing other exemplars than Obama. MLK leads the list.

The one perfect man America produced, who led us all to the Promised Land, dying in the process. Saint Martin. Days are devoted to this exemplar of everything that is right, and correct. MLK essays are standard. Schools have competitions and scholarships on how the Great Man in American history can be used, through his example and wisdom..to better each person, society, humanity itself.Text and class time devoted to MLK in public school exceeds all but Lincoln, supposedly, as individual figures in US history. His Monument in DC will be sited between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials and exceed the land space those dead white men got (4.2 acres). It will cost 120 million, and is expected to open under The One in 2011 as a National Day of Commemoration (as if all the other worship isn't enough).

The NEA has an agenda, and it is to laud certain figures in history, minimize their grave flaws or small part in the process (especially inspirational minorities!), and elevate the lone individual up rather than explain events as being part of a collective movement with many key people playing a part.

But Andrea Ciemnolonski, the parent of another one of the students in the video, said the song was part of a second-grade project on a variety of topics related to the month of February, such as Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day.

"They did songs about President Washington, Lincoln, and they did do one about President Obama," Ciemnolonski said. "My daughter was in the class that did the songs about Obama. It was black history month. ... It was something for the kids to celebrate."

Ciemnolonski said she "just can't look at it as indoctrination," though she added, "The comparisons made were a little exuberant."

It is fascinating to observe Obama fans twist themselves up to find this even kind of okay or not-so-bad.

As I said on another post: I am pretty sure I didn't sing songs praising Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter in my grade school years, and pretty sure not too many others were, for them or for Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton or Bush.

But yeah, I do love observing the Obama fans who keep saying about each new incident of over-the-top adulation of their hero (and I respect him as president, I just don't drop everything when commanded to worship the golden statue), "nothing to see here!"

A word of advice, Obama fans: you might want to contact someone--anyone--in the Democratic Party, or in the union locals, or in "Organizing for America," or whoever, and tell them loudly, "knock it off!"

Because it won't do President Obama any favors to have this become a cause for ongoing ridicule.

Remember the killer rabbit? Remember poor George Bush the elder throwing up in the lap of the Japanese leader? This is a lot better--it's a whole lot funnier.

Well--I'm off to check on the Young Pioneers for the Future that Belongs to Us meeting!

As I said above, the Grace Alliance Church meets in that same gym every week. You could make an even more damaging video of school-aged children if you were in that gym at the right time. But I have no problem if parents expose their children to what some consider "sky fairy bullshit."

As I said above, the Grace Alliance Church meets in that same gym every week. You could make an even more damaging video of school-aged children if you were in that gym at the right time. But I have no problem if parents expose their children to what some consider "sky fairy bullshit."'

I think I understand why you're a former law student. Such poor reasoning can't have stood you well in your studies.

> I'm not indoctrinating anyone's children (a) behind their parents' backs or (b) on the taxpayer's dime.

> Lots of churches meet in public schools--for which they pay rent.

> Adulation of God is fine for, well, God; for someone else, not so fine. President Obama is not my god; your religious beliefs are your business.

> I hope you work things out with the Sky Fairy. You may find you need him at some point.

The rest of the story, from burltwpsch.org. The lyrics to the all praise Barack Obama song were sent home with the children before they performed, back in February. The video was made on March 23, but before the Meet-the-Author event in the evening. So MM and PH were correct.

Parents were invited to attend the March events as well as the February event. None of the parents complained until the video made the news this week. The principal is taking steps to ensure the privacy of his pupils -- even though invasion of privacy is apparently not a tort in NJ, according to 7M. That is all.By now, we're sure that you are aware of a video placed on the Internet that has been reported heavily by the media. The video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama.

Over the past two days we have been able to learn more about this situation and would like to provide you with some additional information. The song was one of eight skits performed during a February 2009 program that included second grade classes. Parents attended the program which took place on February 27, 2009. The other skits in the program included Groundhog Day, Chinese New Year, Abraham Lincoln, Valentine's Day, George Washington, Mardi Gras, and Dental Health Month. The song about President Obama was in recognition of Black History Month. We have been informed that the lyrics of the song were sent home with the children in advance of the assembly, which was the teacher's normal procedure. There were no concerns or complaints prior to, during, or after the program.

On March 23, 2009, an author visited the Young School as part of the school's Women's History Month recognition. As is usual procedure, parents were notified prior to the visit and invited to attend. The author presented two assemblies during which she read from two of her books. She also met with the Teen Book Club at our high school and did an evening book signing for parents and children. The author was accompanied by two individuals. After the first assembly on March 23rd, the class that performed the song at the February assembly about President Obama provided a special performance for the author, since one of the books she wrote was about Barack Obama. We were informed by a representative of the author that one of the individuals who accompanied the author video recorded the performance. School staff had no knowledge of the recording.

We have learned that the video was posted on the author's website without district approval or knowledge. It appears that another party copied the video from the author's website and placed it on YouTube. We have been informed that the video has been removed from the author's website.

Our district takes measures to ensure that our children's privacy is protected. We are carefully evaluating what occurred and will implement any additional needed procedures to prevent children's images in school from being publicly posted without permission. We will also provide reasonable direction and guidelines so that classroom activities will not give the appearance of promoting a particular political perspective.

I think I understand why you're a former law student. Such poor reasoning can't have stood you well in your studies.

> I'm not indoctrinating anyone's children (a) behind their parents' backs or (b) on the taxpayer's dime.

> Lots of churches meet in public schools--for which they pay rent.

Padre, all we could tell from the video was that children were singing in the Young School gym. - We could not tell if parents were absent or present.- We could not tell if the event was school-related or not.- We could not tell if this was a worship service of the new Church of Obama.- We could not tell if the Church of Obama had paid rent for the gym.

With your tendency to jump to conclusions, I can understand why you are a professional holy man.

And as far as not attending the event -- gee I thought this was at night. Oh wait, it was a reheasral... oh wait....

How about, before you are so quick to judge people you know absolutely nothing about consider that maybe Dad and Mom have day jobs and can't get time off? Let's see -- what did you call him --a "negligent parents?"

Are you a lawyer? If so you're pretty careless in your use of language. "Negligent" and "parent" have legal definitions. Not attending a school performance isn't part of it.

I think it a real possibility that the school district is playing serious CYA here.

Padre, although I have read them thoroughly, in your posts here I have failed to see any signs that you are in any way engaged in the salvation of souls or that you are imbued with the grace of God. I would omit your title if I were you lest others hold you to a higher standard as well.